Widely tunable bottom-emitting vertical-cavity SOAs

We present bottom-emitting tunable vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs) with an effective wavelength tuning range of >20 nm. These devices utilize a high reflectivity micromechanically tunable Bragg mirror as the back reflector. Compared with our first generation tunable VCSOAs, the bottom-emitting devices exhibit a two-fold increase in the effective tuning range as well as a five-fold reduction in the required tuning voltage.     

Instructional texts rewritten by five expert teams: Revisions and retention improvements.

700 undergraduates were tested in 3 experiments on original or rewritten versions of 52 instructional texts about Army job tasks, general science, philosophy, and history. Five experts had rewritten various sets of the texts and stated hypotheses about the efficacious features of their revisions. We tested their hypotheses and several others. Recall and recognition tests were given immediately and after a 24-hr delay. Results showed that revisions made by 3 of the 5 experts improved retention of text information. The kind and number of revisions and improvements varied across the text sets. Most expert hypotheses were not supported, and they made many revisions they were declaratively unaware of. Some of our hypotheses about the revision features were supported, but different features were effective for different sets of texts. It was concluded that some experts have effective knowledge about improving instructional text, but it exists primarily in procedural form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Study of liquid injection impact on the performance of new refrigerant mixtures

In this paper, the test results of liquid injection impact on the performance of new alternative refrigerant mixtures such as: R-410A, R-507, R-407C and R-404A are discussed, analysed and presented. The test results were obtained using an air-source heat pump set-up with enhanced surface tubing under various liquid injection ratios. Performance tests were conducted according to the ARI/ASHRAE standards. The performance data demonstrated that as liquid injection ratio increases, compressor head pressure and discharge temperature decrease. This has a positive effect in protecting the compressor. The effect of liquid injection on mixture behaviour varies from one mixture to another depending upon the mixture's composition. Furthermore, liquid injection appears to have a significant influence on R-410A behaviour compared to the other mixtures in question. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability robustness of networked control systems with respect to packet loss

This paper is concerned with stability analysis of discrete-time networked control systems over a communication channel subject to packet loss whose behavior is modeled by an i.i.d Bernoulli process with a packet dropping probability bounded by a constant. A necessary and sufficient condition for stability is obtained. A packet dropping margin is introduced as a measure of stability robustness of a system against packet dropping, and a formula for it is derived. A design method is proposed for achieving a large margin subject to a constraint that the system has a set of prescribed nominal closed-loop poles.     

New lamps for old: the story of electric lighting

Of all the products of electrical technology, none has made a more profound difference to our way of life than the humble light bulb. The author describes the history of the light bulb from the time it was introduced and started to replace gas lamps to the present day. In particular the author discusses the early developments in arc lighting and incandescent filament lamps. The author also discusses the introduction of mercury vapour lamps, fluorescent lamps, and evacuation of the lamps     

High-power 1320-nm wafer-bonded VCSELs with tunnel junctions

A new long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structure is described that utilizes AlGaAs-GaAs mirrors bonded to AlInGaAs-InP quantum wells with an intracavity buried tunnel junction. This structure offers complete wavelength flexibility in the 1250-1650 nm fiber communication bands and reduces the high free-carrier losses and bonded junction voltage drops in previous devices. The intracavity contacts electrically bypass the bonded junctions to reduce threshold voltage. N-type current spreading layers and undoped AlGaAs mirrors minimize optical losses. This has enabled 134/spl deg/C maximum continuous-wave lasing temperature, 2-mW room-temperature continuous-wave single-mode power, and 1-mW single-mode power at 80/spl deg/C, in various devices in the 1310-1340 nm wavelength range.     

Travelling-wave photodetectors with 172-GHz bandwidth and 76-GHzbandwidth-efficiency product

Results of the first fabrication and measurement of travelling-wave photodetectors are reported. The devices have bandwidths as high as 172 GHz, the highest reported for a p-i-n photodetector, and bandwidth-efficiency products as large as 76 GHz, the largest reported for any photodetector without gain. Comparisons with vertically illuminated and waveguide photodetectors fabricated on the same wafer establish the superior performance of travelling-wave photodetectors. Microwave loss on the travelling-wave photodetector structure is identified as a bandwidth limitation     

Long distance fiber-optic transmission of C-band microwave signals to and from a satellite antenna

We demonstrate here the use of high-speed semiconductor lasers and detectors with low loss optical fiber for the transmission of the 500-MHz C-band microwave signal spectrum to and from a satellite antenna. The optical system has low attenuation and large band, width, so the microwave signals can be transmitted directly at the microwave frequency (4 or 6 GHz) over 20 km of fiber without regeneration or qualization. The optical system introduces ≈ 1 dB or less of degradation for both low spectral density QPSK signals and high spectral density FM video signals present in typical satellite transmission systems. For the video signals, the signal to noise after AM conversion was reduced from 56 to 55 dB. The microwave drive level to the laser must be significantly larger (typically > -10 dBm) than the intensity noise of the laser, yet small enough (typically < 10 dBm) to reduce the intermodulation distortion signals to an acceptable level. The laser bias current must be several times threshold so that the resonance frequency is beyond the frequency band of interest (4-6 GHz in this case). A flat modulation response is then obtained, and the intensity noise and intermodulation levels are low.     

High-speed, polyimide-based semi-insulating planar buried heterostructures

We describe planar buried heterostructure lasers which have low capacitance (lpF), large bandwidth (19GHz), high power (>20mW/facet) and high temperature operation (100°C). These lasers are very suitable for long-distance, highspeed digital and analogue signal transmission.